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(c) 2010-2024 Jon L Gelman, All Rights Reserved.
Showing posts with label accidents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label accidents. Show all posts

Thursday, November 8, 2018

The Workplace is Getting Safer - The Future of Workers' Compensation

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has confirmed the steady decline in accidents and injuries on the job. They have declined for 14 years. This data mirrors the steady decline of workers' compensation claims and the change of the US workplace from a manufacturing to service. 

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Daylight Saving Time Is Bad For Worker Health




Photo Credit:  ©2014 Jon L Gelman, All rights reserved
Every year,  the time change swing mandated by Congress alters the clock we follow. Our bodies will suffer and accidents will happen and fatalities in the workplace will increase. The cycle is about to begin yet again as  Daylight Savings Time is about to end.
Today's post by Mike Nudelman is shared from businessinsider.com
Daylight saving time (DST) is about to end, and an interesting thing that you might not realize is how such a small shift in our time can have a large impact on our body clock and our health.

These negative impacts of daylight saving time even cost us real money in lost productivity.

DST starts at 2:00 a.m. (the clock gets turned forward to 3:00 a.m.) on the second Sunday in March and ends at 2:00 a.m. (the clock gets turned back to 1:00 a.m.) on the first Sunday of November.

It was enacted during World War I to decrease energy use. Benjamin Franklin first advocated for the practice in 1784 because he noticed that people used candles at night and slept past dawn in the mornings. By shifting time by an hour during the summer, they would burn fewer candles and not sleep through the morning sunlight.

The debate still rages as to if this time-switch does save energy, but along the way we've seen signs that it has negative effects on our health and the economy.
Surprising health impacts

Transitions associated with the start and end of DST disturb sleep patterns, and make people restless at night, which results in sleepiness the next day, even during a "Fall back" period, since when we Fall Back, we might have trouble adjusting to going to sleep "later" after the time change.

This sleepiness leads to a loss of productivity and an increase in "cyberloafing" in which...

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Saturday, June 28, 2014

The Age-Old Question: Which Workers Have the Greatest Risk for Hand Injuries?

The aging workforce draws attention and concern for increased disability. actually the disability does not come from accidents or traumatic events, but rather from pre-existing disabilities. Those disabilities when compounded by work related accidents and exposures force the aging worker out of the workforce and onto a Federalized disability program, ie. Social Security/Medicare. Today's post was shared by Construction @ NIOSH and comes from zero-excuses-protection.com

When it comes to workplace safety and accident prevention, all workers are not created equally. In fact, some groups of employees—such as younger workers or older workers—are higher risks for certain types of injuries. Evaluating risks that exist for both of these groups and developing strategies to mitigate them are key steps for preventing injuries in the workplace.

YOUNGER WORKERS: GREATER RISK FOR NON-FATAL INJURIES

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) classifies young workers as “those new to the workforce, even up to the age 24.” Representing 14 percent of the workforce today, young workers are a great investment to your business; however, they face a higher risk for injuries while on the job than older, more experienced workers.

According to a 10-year study by CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), an estimated 7.9 million younger workers were treated for nonfatal injuries in U.S. hospital emergency rooms between 1998 and 2007. The nonfatal injury rate was 5 injuries per 100 full-time workers, making it twice as high as workers over the age of 25. Furthermore, workers between 18 and 19 years of age have the highest incidence of workplace injuries among younger workers.

There are a few reasons younger workers may see a higher incidence of workplace injuries. Of course, there’s the obvious: younger workers are less experienced than their older counterparts and have less job knowledge,...

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Sunday, March 9, 2014

Workplace Accidents and Daylight Savings Time

While everyone may be waking up a little tired for work as the clock was moved forward last night by a hour to observe Daylight Savings Time (DST), the impact on work related accidents may be minor. 

A recent study in Finland concludes: "It seems that sleep deprivation after DST transition is not harmful enough to impact on occupational accident rates."

On the other hand  others report, "The real issue, however is not the later hours or extra sunlight. Studies have shown that changing the clocks is responsible for health problems (including increased heart attack and vehicular accident risks) and leads to hundreds of thousands of hours of lost productivity in workplaces across the country. Also: It's really annoying."

See also: A Whitehouse Petition to "Eliminate the bi-annual time change caused by Daylight Savings Time

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Drivers Over Age 55 Far More Likely to Die in Job Accidents Than Younger Workers

Age matters for safety. Today's post was shared by votersinjuredatwork and comes from www.insurancejournal.com

Employees age 55 or older who drive as part of their jobs are more likely to be killed in accidents than younger colleagues because of declining cognition and greater susceptibility to injury, according to a U.S. report.

Employees who drive for work aged 55 to 64 were about 50 percent more likely to die in an accident, and those 65 and older were three times as likely to die, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a study today. Highway accidents are the leading cause of workplace deaths in the U.S.

The problem is likely to worsen as more Americans work deeper into their twilight years. People 55 years or older are projected to comprise 25 percent of the U.S. workforce in 2020, more than double the 12 percent share in 1990. The CDC said transportation companies can adapt by considering less nighttime driving, better-planned routes and refresher driver training.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Dedicated Bike Lanes Can Prevent On-The-Job Injuries

Traffic accidents are major factors in the death of workers on the job. A recent report from the American Public Health Association reports that separate cycling lanes will prevent accidents.

Objectives. We compared cycling injury risks of 14 route types and other route infrastructure features.

Methods. We recruited 690 city residents injured while cycling in Toronto or Vancouver, Canada. A case-crossover design compared route infrastructure at each injury site to that of a randomly selected control site from the same trip.

Results. Of 14 route types, cycle tracks had the lowest risk (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 0.11; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.02, 0.54), about one ninth the risk of the reference: major streets with parked cars and no bike infrastructure. Risks on major streets were lower without parked cars (adjusted OR = 0.63; 95% CI = 0.41, 0.96) and with bike lanes (adjusted OR = 0.54; 95% CI = 0.29, 1.01). Local streets also had lower risks (adjusted OR = 0.51; 95% CI = 0.31, 0.84). Other infrastructure characteristics were associated with increased risks: streetcar or train tracks (adjusted OR = 3.0; 95% CI = 1.8, 5.1), downhill grades (adjusted OR = 2.3; 95% CI = 1.7, 3.1), and construction (adjusted OR = 1.9; 95% CI = 1.3, 2.9).

Conclusions. The lower risks on quiet streets and with bike-specific infrastructure along busy streets support the route-design approach used in many northern European countries. Transportation infrastructure with lower bicycling injury risks merits public health support to reduce injuries and promote cycling.

Read More: http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2012.300762?journalCode=ajph&&


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